Gadget Freak Case #236: Remotely Controlling the Room Temperature

I have a hard-to-heat room over the garage of my house. In winter, that room is always 2-5°F degrees colder than the rest of the house. I tried to adjust the central forced-air heat flow into the room, even adding booster fans, but keeping the room warm remained a problem. So I added a supplemental electric space heater.

Companies sell programmable thermostat controls for gas fireplaces, which come with a handheld remote control, so I decided to adapt one to work with my space heater. The controller that would normally go in a gas fireplace provides a low-voltage, low-current output to turn the fireplace gas supply on or off. I decided to use this output to drive a power relay that would control my electric room heater. The remote receiver uses batteries for power, but because I have AC power already available for the heater, I eliminated the receiver batteries and use a power supply instead.

Although the concept of remote temperature doesn't seem particularly innovative, I did not find anything comparable available for sale that was portable, remotely controlled, and programmable for temperature control. This gadget meets my needs very well. Now I enter a comfortable room in the evening while conserving power the rest of the day. And if I want to adjust the temperature, I do so from the comfort of my easy chair.

I was considering the Nest, but as I understand it, it doesn't have an alarm feature(that is, a low temperature warning). So I'm still using my circa 1990's dialer to adjust temperature (switch between two thermostats one with home one with away setting) since it will call me if the temperature falls below my set point.

If anyone knows of a web-enabled thermostat with alarm, I'd like to hear about it.

I have a thermostat at each of my 2 houses that operates over the internet. It is a Nest product available at Lowes' It works very well and provides a daily chart f when the furnace was on & off. I can set the temperature from anywhere and anytime that I have an internet connection.

I also have a plug-n module into which I can plug in any device such as a lamp or space heater that is also controlled through the internet. It is a WEMO product, also availabel aat Lowes and like some other similar places.

Yes, that's probably a little too high for a single item but mass production would definitely bring the price down. I'm sure there are other people who would be interested in this sort of gadget! Now there's an idea...

I agree, Liz. It's surprising there isn't anything on the market, particularly from the heater manufacturers. But this was done for a pretty low cost -- looks like about $30 for the parts shown here -- but the price could go down if it was produced in volume.

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